Signposting

The general level of maintenance of the trail is excellent, full marks
to the folks at CALM and their
many helpers! Several shelters were taken out by fire and rebuilt, and
fires had been through other parts, but the trail seems to have
fixed up quickly.

This is especially true for the trail markers, which are frequent and
generally well-visible. The combination of yellow signposts at the
roadside and reflective markers nailed to trees ensures sufficient
redundancy to reasonably survive fires and vandals.

Nevertheless, some people (including us ;-) manage to lose the track
occasionally. Reasons are:

It is easy to miss a turnoff in a fast section. When going downhill
fast you need a lot of concentration to stay on your bike, and it is
easy to miss a turnoff. We found that it took a while to get the
“feel” for the track, after which we rarely missed a turn,
and, if we did, noticed almost immediately.

Even when not going particularly fast and on an easy bit, after
riding for hours, it is easy to switch to autopilot and not concentrate
much on navigation, which can also easily lead to missing turnoffs.

Occasionally the markers are overgrown, and at places burnt
out. This is rare, however, a sign of the excellent track maintenance.

Many of the yellow signposts were missing the directional
markers. This seemed to be mostly the case when the trail runs on or
crosses a road, so we strongly suspect that (motoring) morons took them
as souvenirs.

On the last day, getting close to Collie, we saw several signposts
in a row that were run over. Again, we suspect motorised vandals.

All in all, the trail is very well signposted. While several people
complained about lack of signs in the registration books, we suspect
that they, like us in the beginning, hadn't learned to read the
trail. After making similar complains initially, we later realised that
the trail was really marked as well as feasible.

Recommendations

Buy the official trail maps! These are excellent (except that I wish
they'd show a 1km or 2km grid rather than a 5km one, which makes reading
out GPS coordinates a real pain). They are a good way to reassure
yourself that you are still on the track, and if you aren't, how to get
back. They also contain important information like location of emergency
water holes, trail profiles etc. Thirty bucks well invested. A map
holder on the handle bar is highly useful.

Carry a compass. This should go without saying. You are in the bush,
and it's easy to lose the trail, and you may find yourself in a maze of
twisty (or not) little (or large) passages, all different...

I found the GPS very helpful, particularly mounted on
the handle bar. This gives you accurate compass direction while riding,
and, after programming in a few way points, you see with one glance
whether where you are going lines up with what the map says. The GPS is
even more helpful once you managed to get off the track, to identify the
fastest way back onto it.

Stay on the track! Don't think the “temporary
realignments” are advisory only, they are there for good
reasons. Typically it means that industrial-scale tree-felling is in
progress on or near the original track, and continuing might be outright
dangerous (and you are taking the chance that you'll have to backtrack a
fair distance). Furthermore, all the markers are removed from the
original track, and several new roads may have been cut into the bush,
making navigation quite tricky. Finally, the maintainers seem to
have gone to lengths to ensure that the realignments are similar in
length and profile to the original track, so there really is no good
reason not to follow them.